Tsukiko Masaki
Background Tsukiko is the mother of Kiriko and Kai Masaki, and a distant relative of Tenchi's. Biography Tsukiko was born and raised in Masaki Village, among the other descendants of Yosho and his first wife, Kasumi. She was apparently a contemporary of Nobuyuki's, having witnessed how Kiyone treated Nobuyuki when they first met. At some point, she met and fell in love with a man (implied to be GXP's version of Hiroshi Rara), and after marrying, they had a single daughter named Kiriko. Shortly thereafter, Tsukiko's husband died in an unsolved mysterious incident where the spaceship he was on was found compressed (as if by gravity) seemingly killing everybody on board. A few years later, Tsukiko entered a relationship with another man while still in rebound and weak due to her previous husband's terrible death, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son named Kai. However, after spending life with Kai's father, Dai, and recovering from her emotional vulnerability Tsukiko's relationship with Dai deteriorated when she realized Dai was very childish and is just overall reckless never listening to others (much like Kai), and they remained together only for the sake of Kai. In the GXP novels, Kiriko once mentions asking Kai's father what happened, but he was kept silent by Tsukiko. Tsukiko is often annoyed that Kai is growing up more and more to be like Dai and mentions that she is concerned with what will happen once Kai is of age and is informed of the truth about their family and life in space. Tsukiko often took Kai to visit his distant cousin, Tenchi, as they were relatively close in age, and became playmates. In time, Kai made a new friend, Seina Yamada, who also became a close friend of Tenchi's. Kai's personality that takes after his father allowed him to get along with Seina despite the latter's terrible bad luck, and from then on their family has taken care of Seina a lot due to Kai bringing him over. One day, while being visited by Seina's parents, they broke out into tears about how happy they were that Kai hadn't been driven off by Seina's bad luck. Unknown to them, young Kiriko was watching from the door. When Kiyone, Tenchi's mother, died, Tsukiko took Kiriko to the funeral, which was limited only to blood relatives. As Seina grew older, Tsukiko found herself drawn to him more and more. While Tsukiko and their other relatives were getting ready for Rea's wedding, some of her cousins began to pester her about making a move on Seina. This was partly because they themselves were assigned to eventually be "with him" but are frustrated that they are being prevented from seeing him until the Jurai political situation on Earth is settled, which Tsukiko replies ranting how Seina was still too young for her to start a relationship with him. After Seina joined the GXP, Tsukiko told Kiriko that, should they force Seina to return to Earth, she'd marry Seina to give him his chance to be in space as she was just in a prolonged "maternity leave" as a member of the Galactic Academy. Tsukiko back in her Galactic Academy days: While Tsukiko was still with the Galactic Academy where she met and came to be in a relationship with her first husband, she was the subject of affection of a fellow researcher, Dr. Steinbeck, who happens to be GXP's version of Dual!'s Ken Sanada. Dr. Steinbeck wished for Tsukiko's happiness with her husband so he settled his own feelings by pouring his attention into creating a "daughter" of his own based on Tsukiko without the latter's knowledge. His experiments resulted in the creation of an artificial daughter, who later dies and ends up becoming an A.I. with an Astral Body (in short, an A.I. that got a soul), named Miki Steinbeck (GXP's version of Mitsuki Sanada). Later in the GXP novels Tsukiko is shown returning to the Galactic Academy in order to be introduced to Miki. This was after Dr. Steinbeck reunites with Miki who now had the body of a cabbit, told Miki the truth about the secrets of her birth, essentially revealing Tsukiko as Miki's mother in a sense. Miki feels a sense of connection with Tsukiko, but also notes that Tsukiko may be a great rival against Seina's affections. Category:Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki Category:Tenchi Muyo! characters Category:Characters Category:Masaki family Category:Females